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Book Review: The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

T;LDR: A multiple POV fantasy with a gruesome magical system, The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart is an interesting tale and a great start to this trilogy.

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 1/2

A book with multiple POVs, it is tricky to sum it up in a sentence or two, but I’ll give a it a shot. An island empire protected by gruesome magical constructs powered by bone shards, The Bone Shard Daughter features five POVs, and tells the tale of change, acceptance, and the effects of taking more than you should.

I really liked this book — the story is interesting, the mythology is so well set up, and the Bone Shard magic is horrific, creepy, and so, so good. For those reasons and more (Jovis and Mephi!), I rated this at 4.5 stars.

The Plot

Lin, the Emperor’s daughter, is in a race against her foster brother, Bayan, to prove her worth to the Emperor. The keys are for the many locked doors in the palace behind which all the secrets are buried. To get a key, she has to remember more of her past; both she and Bayan suffer memory loss. Whomever gathers the most keys from the Emperor will be named the heir to the throne. 

In order to beat Bayan, she becomes a thief, stealing keys from her father’s keyring and making copies, so that she can see what lies behind the doors. When she gets access to the library, she sets her master plan in motion of learning the dangerous bone shard magic which power the constructs that protect the Empire from their enemies.

On another isle, in a different story arc, is Jovis, a smuggler, who is searching for his wife. His wife, Emahla, was taken seven years before and he has spent all that time searching for her. He gets involved, through a series of reluctant hero moments, in the rebellion occurring within the islands’ system of the Empire. He also rescues and ends up befriending a companion animal named Mephisolous. Mephi is not your normal animal.

Along his journey, we’ll meet other secondary characters, Phalue and Ranami, who are part of the revolution (Phalue a bit reluctantly at first), and come to understand the reasons for the uprising. 

We also meet another character, Sand, whose storyline is a bit more vague and murky. I’ll leave it there to avoid spoilers.

T;LDR: Can Lin uncover the secrets her father hides behind all the doors in the palace, beat her brother, and become the heir? And can Jovis and Mephi survive their encounters and find his wife? And will the uprising succeed?

What I liked & liked less

I had a hard time, initially, getting into this book. I found the multiple POVs on different islands with different story threads a bit confusing at first. I would’ve liked a pull out map so that I didn’t have to keep referring back to the front cover to figure out where everyone was. But that’s just a whiny want, not a drawback from the book.

But based on how much everyone raved about this book, I pushed through my initial issue and am so happy I did. 

My favorite characters were Jovis and Mephi. Like many other reviewers, I found their relationship to be amazing and funny. The way Mephi pushes Jovis to do the right thing with a few words here or there… I loved it. I also really like Jovis. He is the epitome of a reluctant hero. He keeps doing things he doesn’t want to because he can’t *not* do them. He cares too much, for all his posturing that he doesn’t. He’s also someone you can connect to in his journey.

And that leads me to Lin. Now, I like her plucky nature. I like that she finds ways around her father’s locked doors — which is a metaphor for the locked memories within her — and I liked that she too had a good heart, befriending the blacksmith who helped her copy the keys. But… I did not connect as well to her as to Jovis. Her internal monologues were very plot focused, where Jovis’ were character driven.

I did like the twist in Lin’s story, however.

The magic in this story is grotesque and yet also very interesting. I liked how well it was grounded in the world, in the uprising, in the motivations for both sides of the story — Lin and Jovis — and how it is used later in the book. 

I didn’t mind Phalue and Ranami’s story, but it also didn’t pull me in either. Phalue was just too clueless to what was happening around her for someone with a ‘commoner’ mother and Ranami was a mercenary, down to who and what she was willing to sacrifice for the cause. 

One thing some people may not like, but I had no issues with were the POVs. Lin and Jarvis’ POV is in first person; Ranami, Phalue and Sand’s POV is in third person. It didn’t bother me, although it took me a while to see that Lin’s was in first when I noticed it in Jovis’ right away. That probably says more about the connection to the character than the structure, however. 

To Sum Up (Too Late!)

Overall, this was a really good book — from the world building, the mythology, the magic system, and the characters we’ve met so far (it’s a two book series). Because Jovis and Mephi’s story was so good and Sand’s story hinted at what was to come in book 2, I do recommend you read this book. With the lack of connection to Lin, I didn’t give it my highest rating, but it is 4.5 stars.

And book 2 is on my TBR pile.

About the Author 

Andrea Stewart is the Chinese American daughter of immigrants, and was raised in a number of places across the United States. Her parents always emphasized science and education, so she spent her childhood immersed in Star Trek and odd-smelling library books. When her (admittedly ambitious) dreams of becoming a dragon slayer didn’t pan out, she instead turned to writing books. She now lives in sunny California, and in addition to writing, can be found herding cats, looking at birds, and falling down research rabbit holes.

If you wish to purchase this book, pick your vendor of choice here, or just cave to the man and get it from Amazon here.

This book fulfills another square in my Fantasy Bingo Card — the Set in Asia square.

Originally published on Feedium. I may earn commissions from qualifying purchases made through links in this post on Amazon.com.